Saturday, February 05, 2005

Charity/Celebrity Tournament

I just got back today from Dallas where I participated in a charity poker tournament put on by 102.1 'The Edge' and The Knights of Malta charity. Commander Sir Kent Farquhar of the Knights of Malta had invited me to play in the event as they were trying to raise funds for a new hospital. The main tournament was a freeroll and consisted of 600 people with the winner getting a free seat to the WSOP main event. I was to play in the 'celebrity' event in which the winner donated $2,500 to the charity they were playing for. In the main tournament I got to deal one table of six people. We were down to 60 at that point and the format was that there were 10 6-person tables and the winner of each table went to the final table. Well, I am happy to say that the winner of my table, Amber Thorton, went on to the final table and won her way into the WSOP. In the celebrity event I got to play with Gavin Griffen (WSOP pot-limit champ), Stevie Benton and Mike Luce of the band Drowning Pool, Jackson and Monica from Fear Factor who won a million dollars, Ralph Strangis (the voice of the Dallas Stars), and some other cool people to bring the total to 10. We all started with 1,000 chips and blinds of 50-100. Gavin and I just looked at each other and had to laugh. On the first hand I had the small blind and got pot odds to call with T 2 since everyone called but Gavin. I flopped a 2 and turned a ten and won the pot when no one called my bet. I was the chip leader after one hand. Mike Luce of Drowning Pool ordered everyone shots of Jager and the tournament was rolling. We lost someone on the 3rd hand and on the 4th hand I knocked out two people when my QQ held up vs. TT and AQ. The blinds then went up to 100-200. Gavin got knocked out a little later with KT because he was short on chips and all the sudden we were down to 4 after 9 hands. This tournament was hilarious. Blinds were going up every 10 minutes and each hand took about 3 minutes. I ended up getting heads up with a rock guy whose name I don't even remember. We were about even in chips. The first hand I got T4 of clubs and just called from the SB. The flop came T76 and I checked. Frankly, I wanted to check-raise because I figured he would bet with anything. He checked. The turn came ten for a board of TT76 and I checked again. Again he checked. Well, this isn't working I thought. When the river was an ace I moved all-in hoping he hit his ace. He called and showed me K9. Gotta love celebrity poker. He was forced to move all in next hand with 2 6 and I had 33 and it held up. Ship it! 14 hands into the tournament and it was all over. If only the WPT had been that easy. Well, I was happy for my charity and it was all in good fun.